Married at Thirteen
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Source: economist.com |
It was thier custom and she really couldn't argue with it nor was she old enough to do that. Immediately she turned thirteen, Amina had been matched into marriage to an Alhaji who was several years her age and who already had many wives. The ceremony had been done lavishly. She remembered the joy in her parent's faces as she was escorted to the house of the Alhaji.
Truth be told, it wasn't what she wanted. Like other girls her age, she wanted to be in school and study to become a pilot. She remembered the first time she had seen an airplane as it flew past thier hut and from that moment had begun to dream of flying one. But those dreams were gone now. Her marriage to the Alhaji had effectively put an end to that.
She had wished she could go back home, could remain a girl, could play about with friends her age, go to school, perhaps travel the world. But her life was never hers, not while she was with her parent, nor with the Alhaji who had become her husband. She had wondered if this what life was all about, but as time passed and has she settled into her new found home and role as a wife, and then a mother, all those things slowly faded away.
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